British Airways - disrupted journey both outgoing and incoming!

Becles

We had a holiday booked with BA, which included flights from Newcastle to Reykjavik, via Heathrow. I also booked the hotel in Reykjavik and an overnight hotel at Heathrow on the outbound flight. This was all in the same booking.

Outbound: should have flown on the Friday evening to Heathrow, stayed over and flown to Reykjavik on the Saturday morning. On the Thursday evening, I got an email saying the Newcastle to Heathrow flight had been cancelled due to the storm. They said if I made my own way to Heathrow, they would refund the Newcastle leg. I bought train tickets and managed to get there. I have been refunded for the flight, but not for the train tickets.

Inbound: I was told the evening before that the Reykjavik flight would be delayed due to a storm due to hit overnight, meaning it would be too windy to land in the incoming flight in the morning. The airport and the road to the airport were both closed that morning. I spoke to BA on the Friday morning as the delay meant missing the connecting flight to Newcastle. I was assured they were sorting things. I was told I'd get the new flight tickets when I checked in, then I needed to go to the BA desk in Heathrow arrivals and they'd have details of an overnight hotel.

Got to Heathrow, and it was absolutele chaos. The IT system had gone down. I was told they couldn't access the reservation system and nobody knew where my hotel room had been booked. I was advised to pay for my own hotel room.

Came back to the airport the following morning to find all domestic flights cancelled due to the IT system. Our cases had been checked through to Newcastle and I wasn't able to get them back. I was advised they had no idea when I'd be able to fly to Newcastle, so it would be best to make my own way home. Ended up booking train tickets again and came home.

I've not been refunded for the flight and can't claim for it in "my booking" as it's shown as flown.

I've logged a report for the missing bags but only one of three cases is showing on the report and I cannot add the other two cases. I haven't got the luggage yet, the report hasn't been updated since Saturday and I've not been able to speak to anyone about it.

I put in a claim for the two sets of train tickets, the hotel at Heathrow, taxi transfer and meals. I've not had an acknowledgement and not been able to speak to anyone about that either.

Has anyone got any advice on how to proceed further with this?

I really need one of the cases back as it's got all my daughters hiking gear in. She's going on Duke of Edinburgh expedition on Saturday and needs her hiking boots and warm clothes for that.

Caz3121

for the outbound, was the train more expensive than the flight refund? if so then you should probably be claiming the difference rather than the full train ticket.

Westin

Gosh what a mess and a horrendous start and end to your holiday.

BA had weather disruption then baggage handling issues, TWO IT outages during the week - the biggest last Friday, resulting in lots of cancellations.

I suspect it might be a short while before BA can work through the thousands of disruption claims so no quick fix.  I would just detail the extra costs incurred, scan receipts and submit a claim.  I can’t see them rejecting reasonable claims. They know they messed up big time.

On a positive - at least you will miss the next BA disruption when their catering company strike next week.

Becles

Caz3121 said:

for the outbound, was the train more expensive than the flight refund? if so then you should probably be claiming the difference rather than the full train ticket.

Yes the train was more expensive as it was short notice and the trains were busy. I bought the cheapest ones that were available on that day.